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⊗01

No? This one then, perhaps? Honestly. They should include a manual.

[It's just audio at first, muffled and distant, interspersed with the beeping of pressed buttons and the confused ramblings of a man far beyond his league with this kind of technology.]

Or a pamphlet of some sort at the very least. Maybe an explanation of my whereabouts. I don't suppose that would be too much to ask.

[How were you supposed to accomplish anything on this device? Where were the wires? ]

Is anyone there? Hello? I think it's on now. I believe it is. Sorry. I appear to be a bit lost. If you're there, please respond. My name is Charles Xavier and it is really very important I get back at once. The situation-

[There are a few more beeps from the buttons and a camera feed clicks on as well, aimed to the dirt and debris of the ground.]

Oh! Well, that did something. What is this little light for?

[The video jostles a little more and with another button press the entire feed goes dead.]

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And it's always been Charles.

[ His mind is easy to locate, and well within range. There's no bright-pulsing feel of telepathic power, and it feels like a grey cloud clings to his mind, makes a barrier around his thoughts. ]

[Charles reaches out to his mind, and the cloud-like barrier makes him shudder inwardly at how off it feels. His brows furrow and knit further in confusion.]

How did you end up here? [There are so many questions pushing to the front of his mind and he has to stop himself from rattling them all off in rapid succession. Priorities. The other man's mind made him uncomfortable. Was it the result of a mutation? Their similar DNA? He did not have an experience close enough to this to compare it to.

This other mutant could not be his twin. A secret that big? His mother would have had to have thought of it at least once, it would have lingered like all secrets do in the minds of those not accustomed to shielding their thoughts. Alternating between hidden and pressing forward]

We can not both be- I find it difficult to believe that we could both be Charles Xavier.

[Genetic evolution, mutations, the strange new world of possibilities he was so fascinated and enamored with did not yet include alternate realities into the equation.]

[ His hand shoots to his temple as soon as he feels a hint of mental touch. He doesn't have his powers, doesn't have any way to retaliate, but immediately his mind bristles with fury/fear/guilt, surges of emotions that Charles keeps locked away deep inside most of the time.

Barbed wire, mud, the flicker of life draining from a soldier's eyes. Keep out of here, I will not, I will not be powerless. ]

Don't. Don't you do that.

[He nearly reels from the onslaught of emotions, and it may not be retaliation but it still catches Charles a bit off guard. What he does catch glimpses of surprise him even further. Nothing like the memories of his own life at all.

He does pull away from Charles' mind, but not immediately. He lingers for a moment longer, searching for some form of proof in the other mutant's mind.]

I'm sorry. I just- You can't be me. I mean. You are not me.

[Different memories, small differences, different lives. How could they be the same person? They merely shared a name and some genetic similarities. The other options were far more ludicrous than even that.]

[ And there are images, flashes: the exhilaration in Erik's eyes, a hint of blue skin from underwater, the image wobbly.

Further back: a dark house, the smell of wood-polish and then the acrid taste of Scotch on a child's tongue, sampled too warm from a glass where the ice has melted, his mother long since asleep.

Toy soldiers on a chessboard.

Charles' mind flounders and he shoves back at the telepathic intrusion, a pained why would you even want to see this, caught with strings of fear and anger and that feeling, that specific feeling of a mind slipping away into death that Charles has felt entirely too many times. ]

[Charles pulls away abruptly, the last bits all too familiar to his own mind, and he's even more uncertain now. That was Erik, no denying that, and those memories-

Charles shakes his head, rubbing his temple, regret and confusion and uncertainty swirling in his own mind. He sends an apologetic wave of calm and then nothing, staying far out of Charles' head.

It was too much and not enough to piece together properly, but enough that he has to stop and just, stare. Because the mutant on the other side of this conversation is all at once him and not him at all. This had to be a trick on his mind.

Whatever the case, he's momentarily speechless, trying to make sense of what he saw.]

[ And this Charles cuts off the video.

His heart is racing. He shouldn't have so childishly severed the link, he knows, but he needs a moment to cope with this. He'd been prepared to face the reality of other universes, but -- at a distance. Over a link. Not in his mind.

He closes his eyes and shudders, resisting calling for Raven. ]

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